If you didn’t film yourself meticulously chopping produce into your 100-piece set of food storage containers, did you even meal prep? You may have thought getting lunch ready for the week just meant packing some salads on a Sunday night as “60 Minutes” plays in the background. But these days, performatively staging your sustenance for the week has become a social media trend all on its own.
A brief scroll of TikTok and you’ll see there’s meal prepping for “lazy girls,” for eating on a budget, nurses on 12-hour shifts, families of five and even college kids (who are apparently no longer just showing up to the dining hall in pajamas to eat cereal at 2 p.m.).
With the surplus of storage containers and prepping hacks you may think meal prepping couldn’t get any more ... well, prepared. However, I raise you this all-in-one food prep station.
Instead of pulling out a cutting board, a variety of peelers and graters, all of your containers, you can now slice and dice everything you need with one versatile instrument. It’s a bamboo cutting board with grated drawers and containers packed underneath the board. Depending on the style, they come with their own stackable tops, letting you grate or peel directly into the container you’ll be storing the food in — all on the same cutting board.
And though it’s easy to snark at all the meal-prepping madness, I humbly say, this tool is pretty genius.
One of the most popular meal-prepping stations is the all-plastic Prepdeck, which was first seen on Shark Tank, though feels like an item made entirely to show off on the internet. These cost north of $120, measure almost two feet long and are often sold out on Amazon. They also have a phone stand built-in, so you reference recipe open on your phone or tablet (or film yourself chopping, if that dices your onion).
Yet, if you’re a home chef looking for something a little more budget-friendly and a lot more compact for your kitchen, we found a selection of smaller bamboo options that are completely stocked and just as beloved by home chefs, all under $60. They may not look as “camera ready” but they’re a super adaptable tool that will save you time on prepping and cleaning.
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Promising review: "i like this a lot. it suits my needs and matches my kitchen much better than prepdeck, which costs over twice as much. it’s very portable and i can easily move it where i need it around my small kitchen—otherwise it just sits on my bamboo chopping block atop the washer and looks good. i don’t use a dishwasher, but i’ll be hand drying the graters as i use them and watch like a hawk for any rust—will update if i find any. i agree, the manufacturer should package extra storage bins/lids and graters separately, for those who really go to town with this!" — elithea
Promising review: "Great for small kitchens. It’s amazing. It’s exactly what you need for your kitchen. It’s a dupe for the prep deck." — Alla2526
Promising review: "So easy to store and use. It’s easy to use for scraps and prepping food. I LOVE it. Helping me use more of my groceries!!" — Amazon customer
Promising review: "Can I say how awesome this is when prepping for taco night? Ah-mazing! I can shred lettuce, onions, and tomatoes into their own containers at the same time and set the containers out for the family to choose what they want. It's great for shredded cheese when cooking Italian meals. Best of all, when the sides/cheeses don't get emptied, throw the lid on it and put it in the fridge for leftovers. Since it's bamboo I would not use it for any raw meats. I did however seal it with beeswax. So far so good. Six stars for me." — Ntwrk_Admin
Promising review: "Was on the fence between this and the prep deck. Asked the hubby a few questions before his birthday. He prefers bamboo to plastic. He loves this and I am very happy that he is happy," — Barbi
Promising review: "I love this cutting board! the fit in containers are perfect for separating waste or putting your chopped veggies in for storage. it fits over my sink for limited use of space." — Dawn Wyman